There are too many little leaguers in San Francisco

Not long ago we passed along a story about how interest in baseball is down among America’s youth and how little league participation is declining. Not so in San Francisco where Giants-inspired enthusiasm has leagues overflowing and a shortage of coaches and fields:

The leagues are struggling to find enough fields for games and practices. San Francisco Little League controls three fields on Treasure Island, a windswept former Navy base in San Francisco Bay just off the Bay Bridge, and is seeking more from the city’s parks department. In addition, more players mean a need for more coaches. “We had to twist some arms,” said Bill Johnston, the commissioner of Mill Valley Little League’s minors division.

San Francisco is shipping kids up to Mill Valley in Marin County to play. Which is a problem because Mill Valley is itself seeing an overflow of players. Rather than fear the beard, the Bay Area’s youth were lured in by it.

I don’t know that this is terribly significant for that whole “kids aren’t into baseball anymore” thing, but it is certainly indicative of how baseball is an extremely local sport and how what’s going on on a national scale, be it in TV ratings or cultural dynamics or anything, is not the whole story. Not by a long shot.